Dredging apparatus



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

G. D. MILLER..-

' DREDGING APPARATUS.

. No. 562,232. Patent ed June 16, 1896.

No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 2.

G. D. MILLER.

DREDGING APPARATUS.

No. 662,232. Patented June 16, 1896.-

ANDREW B GRAHAM.PNOTO-LITMQWASMINGTONJ c UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

GORDON DAVIDSON MILLER, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

DREDGIING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 562,232, dated June 16, 1896.

Application filed May 16, 1896. Serial No. 549,487. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GORDON DAVIDSON MIL- LER, of Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Dredging Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to that class of dredging apparatus by which excavated or dredged matter is forced or discharged through a pipe from which it is delivered to a place of deposit. In the use of such dredging apparatus considerable difiiculty has been experienced in securing a free passage of the solid portions of .the dredged matter through the discharge and delivery pipe, such portions sometimes so collecting in said pipe as to choke or partly choke it and thereby very much impair the efficiency of the apparatus.

The object of this invention is to facilitate the passage of the matter through the pipe and to prevent any deposit and collection of solid matter therein or, if any such deposit or collection should from any cause take place, to provide for its easy removal.

I will first describe the invention in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and afterward point out its novelty in claims.

Figure 1 in the drawings represents a side view of a dredging apparatus embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan of the same. Fig. 3 represents a longitudinal section,on a larger scale than Figs. 1 and 2, of portions of the discharge and delivery pipe and of the devices which constitute my invention for the purpose of facilitating the discharge and preventing the choking of said pipe or removing solid deposits which may take place'therein. Fig. 4 represents a transverse section in the line 4 4 of Fig. Figs. 5 and 6 represent transverse sectional views of the discharge and delivery pipe, illustrating modifications of my invention. I

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

A is a scow, in which is provided a tank B, into which there is collected the material excavated or dredged by a grappling device 0, operated in any suitable manner by a derrick D on the scow.

Suitably arranged on board the scow, in a convenient position relatively to the tank 13, is a forcing apparatus E, from which a dis charge and delivery pipe G H passes through or over the side of the scow. The saidforcing apparatus may consist, as shown, of a steam vacuum-pump or of a pump of any other suitable kind, the suction-pipe F of connected between the floats by flexible 'conneetions H, the said sections and connections being in the aggregate of sufficient length to extend from the scow to the point where the excavated or dredged material is to be de posited. The pipe-sections G may be of cast-- iron. The connections II are represented as consisting each of two flanged sockets a and a short piece of tubing 12, of india-rubber,canvas, or other flexible material, said sockets being of a calibercorresponding with thepipesections G and being flanged to correspond with the flanges on the said sections G and bolted to said sections by bolts 0, passing through the flanges. The flexible pieces of which the parts I) are composed may be attached to their respective sockets a in any suitable manner. 'They are represented as drawn tightly over beads cl, provided around the said sockets a, and as secured by a cord or wire 6, wound around them behind the said beads.

J J, Figs. 3, 4:, and 5, represent what are termed scouring-pipes, which constitute the principal feature of my invention. There may be one or more of such pipes in each of the sections G of the discharge and delivery pipe. In Figs. 3 and 4 only one such scouring-pipe is represented and in Fig. 5 two are represented arranged side by side. Each scouring-pipe may extend through any number of sections of the delivery-pipe. In the example represented there is a separate scouring-pipe for each of several sections of the delivery-pipe, each of said scouring-pipes extending nearly the whole length of its respective delivery-pipe section G. The said scouring-pipes are preferably arranged nearly close to the bottom of the said sections, and they are perforated, as shown at f, at numerous intervals throughout their length, the perforations being preferably on the side which is adjacent to the pipe-sections G. There is at each end of each scouring-pipe an outlet 9 through the bottom or side of its respective delivery-pipe section G, the said opening being to provide for the connection together of the several scouring-pipes J by flexible pipes J outside of the flexible delivery-pipe connections H. The connections between the said pipesJ and J are represented (see Fig. 4:) as made by means of short couplings h inserted through the pipe-sections G and into elbows which are formed at the ends of the scouring-pipes.

The pipes J may be of india-rubber tubing and secured to the couplings h by being stretched tightly over beads formed around the outer ends of said couplings. The scouring-pipes J, one for each pipe-section G, and the outside flexible connecting-pipes J constitute a continuous train of pipe which is connected with the branch 2" of the dischargepipe iof a pump K, represented in Fig. 1 as a steam-pump, which takes water from outside the scow or from any suitable source and forces it through the said train of pipes J J for the purpose of scouring out the deliverypip'e G H, the scouring-water being delivered into the several deliverypipe sections G through the numerous perforations f of the scouring-pipe in such manner as to so break up and loosen any solid matters which may collect or tend to collect in the said sections that the said matters will be washed out from the latter pipe with the water delivered to it from the pump K. The branch t" of the discharge-pipe i of the pump K may be connected with the scouring-pipe J of any one of the delivery-pipe sections; but as obstructions are not so likely to occur in the said sections G which are nearest the pump, it may not be necessary to connect it with the scouring-pipes of the lattersections. In Figs. 1 and 2, I have represented said pipe as not connected at the first and second sections G of the delivery-pipe, but as connected by a pipe with the scouring-pipe of the third section G, the said pipe j being made of short sections united by flexible connections j at the sides of the flexible connections II of the main delivery-pipe G H. In the modification of my invention shown in Fig. 6, instead of ascouring-pipe J of round form inserted into the delivery-pipe sections G, I have represented such a section as cast with a channel J 2 in its bottom, the inner wall of the said channel having numerous perforations f, through which water supplied to the said channel in the same way in which it has been described as supplied to the pipes J is forced in jets among the contents of the pipesections G for the purpose of breaking up the solid matters therein.

Although in the example of my invention which I have illustrated and hereinabovc described I have represented the forcing or pumping apparatus by which the dredged material is forced through the discharge and delivery pipe G II as taking the dredged matter from a tank, it will be obvious without further illustration by drawing that my invention is just as well applicable to the discharge and delivery pipe of a dredging apparatus consisting simply of a pump the suction-pipe of which takes the matter directly from its source or from any place where it may be situated, instead of from a tank in which it has been collected.

It will be readily understood that the scouring'pipe instead of being supplied with water, as hereinabove illustrated and described, may be supplied with steam or compressed air, which would have the same effect of breaking up or loosening any solid matter which might otherwise collect or settle or tend to collect or settle in the discharge or delivery pipe.

I have herein described the several lengths of pipe J as scouring-pipes, but they may be considered as practically only sections of one scouring-pipe which is made flexible by flexible connections J. The flexible pipe being thus formed and combined with the flexible delivery-pipe, as hereinabove described, the delivery-pipe and scouring-pipe have a corresponding flexure, so that each accommodates itself to the other in any sinuous course in which they may require to be arranged.

hat I claim as my invention is- 1. The combination in a dredging apparatus, of a delivery-pipe consisting of pipe-sections and flexible connections, scouring-pipe sections one for each of said first-mentioned pipe-sections, and flexible connections between the several scouring-pipe sections, substantially as herein described.

2. The combination in a dredging appara tus, of a delivery-pipe consisting of pipe-sections with flexible connections, scouring-pipes one in each of said sections having openings through the sides of said sections, and flexible connections between said scouring-pipes outside of the flexible connections of the delivery-pipe, substantially as herein set forth.

GORDON DAVIDSON MILLER.

\Vitnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, LIDA M. EGBIGRI. 

